Board of Directors

Kevin LaMountain

Arizona State Board for Private Postsecondary Education

President

2024 – 2025

Kevin LaMountain is currently the Executive Director at the Arizona State Board for Private Postsecondary Education. Prior to Kevin’s position with Arizona, he served in numerous roles in the private postsecondary space for over 30 years. Kevin’s experience in education ranges from service roles in career services, student services, and financial aid through Dean of Student Affairs and culminating in a Divisional President position for a large postsecondary institution. Kevin has dedicated his career to serving those individuals who seek to reach their goals through higher education. A graduate of Northern Arizona University’s educational leadership program, Kevin has dedicated his career to serving those individuals who seek to reach their goals through higher education. He advocates for always doing the “right thing” for students, faculty, and staff in these institutions.

Kevin is also the past president of the Arizona Private School Association and currently serves on the board of Caurus Academy, a small charter school system based in Anthem, Arizona.

Cathie (Cam) Maeyaert

Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board

Vice President

2024 – 2025

Ms. Cathie Maeyaert is the Director of Private Postsecondary Institutions with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Ms. Maeyaert has worked for the Coordinating Board since 2012, primarily overseeing authorization of private postsecondary educational institutions operating in Texas. She serves as the Coordinating Board’s Title IX Coordinator for Institutions and as Alternative Dispute Resolution Coordinator. Prior to that, she worked in the areas of compliance, accreditation, and licensing for a private for-profit multi-state educational system. Ms. Maeyaert has been an adjunct instructor at both a for-profit college and a non-profit private university. Throughout her career, Ms. Maeyaert has served on boards of directors for various non-profit charitable organizations. In a previous life, Cathie practiced intellectual property and employment law and developed continuing legal education seminars. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Hamline University and a Juris Doctor degree from William Mitchell College of Law.

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John Ware

Ohio State Board of Career Colleges and Schools

Treasurer

2024 – 2025

John Ware has served as Executive Director of the Ohio State Board of Career Colleges and Schools since 1997 and is responsible for the oversight and regulation of Ohio’s 230 career colleges and schools. In addition to the Board’s general oversight responsibilities, John is responsible for drafting and implementing Ohio’s rules and regulations governing career colleges including academic standards, admissions standards, and regulations governing the recruitment and solicitation of students.

Prior to joining the Board of Career Colleges and Schools, John served as an Ohio Assistant Attorney General for education, providing legal counsel to numerous state education agencies including the Ohio Board of Regents and the Ohio Department of Education. While serving as an Assistant Attorney General, John was responsible for the implementation and prosecution of administrative enforcement actions against state licensed teachers, private elementary and secondary schools, as well as licensed career colleges. John received his Bachelor of Arts from Michigan State University and his Juris Doctorate from The Ohio State University.

John is also active on many state and national education organizations and previously served as President of NASASPS from 2009-2015. This is his second term on the NASASPS Board of Directors since serving as President.

Debbie Cochrane

California’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education

Director

2024- 2025

Debbie Cochrane is the Bureau Chief of California’s Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education, which authorizes 1,800 private institutions and associated locations in California and is home to the state Office of Student Assistance and Relief. Cochrane is also an appointed member of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, a federally authorized committee responsible for providing recommendations to the U.S. Department of Education in its oversight of accrediting agencies that monitor the academic quality of postsecondary institutions and programs.

Cochrane has represented state higher education authorizing agencies in the U.S. Department’s development of program integrity regulations including gainful employment, financial responsibility, and administrative capability. She is also an inaugural Governing Board member of California’s Cradle-to-Career system, a statewide data system to help students reach their goals and deliver information on education and workforce outcomes.

Prior to her appointment as Bureau Chief, Cochrane was the executive vice president of The Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit organization focused on pursuing student-centered public policies that promote affordability, accountability, and equity in higher education. Her career includes service in research, direct service, and management roles within a variety of nonprofit settings. Cochrane holds an MSW with a focus on social policy from San Francisco State University and a BA from the University of Michigan.

This is her first term on the NASASPS Board of Directors.

Maggie Rivers

Deputy Director and SARA Coordinator for the Georgia Nonpublic
Postsecondary Education Commission

Director

2024 – 2025

Magda Rivers serves as the Deputy Director and SARA Coordinator for the Georgia Nonpublic Postsecondary Education Commission. She has been with the agency for almost 10 years in various compliance and leadership roles and has been actively involved in developing compliance best practices and procedures, legislation and policymaking processes, agency communications, strategic planning initiatives, and agency operations.

This is her first term serving on the NASASPS Board of Directors.

Crystal Puderbaugh

Kansas Board of Regents

Director

2024 – 2025

Ms. Crystal Puderbaugh is the Director for Academic Affairs with the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR). In her current position, she provides leadership to the private and out of state postsecondary education (PPS) division of KBOR, a fee-funded unit responsible for the oversight and approval process for any private or out-of-state postsecondary education institution wishing to operate within the state of Kansas. Ms. Puderbaugh’s responsibilities also include the management of the division budget and analysis of operating activities to ensure the division operational goals are met. She is a graduate of Washburn University, Friends University and is currently in the dissertation phase of the Doctorate of Educational Administration program at Kansas State University. Ms. Puderbaugh has served on the NASASPS Board of Directors previously in the following roles: President 2019-present Vice President 2018-2019, Treasurer 2017-2018, Director 2015-2017.

This is her first term serving on the NASASPS Board of Directors.